Youngster makes his mark in competition

Droitwich Spa High School pupil Ross Kirkpatrick with his winning design. (s)

A DROITWICH Spa High School pupil has scooped success in the local round of a competition to get young people thinking about careers in manufacturing.

Ross Kirkpatrick was one of the successful entries in the Mid-Worcestershire round of the “We Made It!” competition after his designs for a temperature controlled fan was picked by the town’s MP Peter Luff.

Hundreds of young people across the country have been busy designing gadgets and gizmos as part of the exciting competition which will see two lucky

winners turn their idea into a real-life prototype.

The competition invited 13 to 16-year-olds throughout the UK to let their imagination run wild and design a brand new product.

The idea behind the competition is that the children get to see that manufacturing is about design and creativity as well as hands-on making of the products.

From fashion and video game consoles to cars and airplanes, there are many varied industries with manufacturing at their heart and in which exciting career opportunities exist.

Ross’ entry is one of 32 shortlisted entries selected from more than 360 entries nationally and Ross will now be invited to a reception in the Houses of Parliament in January to meet Mr Luff.

“I was delighted to receive a large number of entries for this competition and I would like to thank all the pupils from all the high schools who took part,” Mr Luff added.

“All the entries I received were very inventive and it was a very difficult decision, but I chose Ross’ design for a temperature controlled fan as I think it was really practical – if it became a real product I would definitely buy it myself.”

The overall winning entry will be put before a panel of manufacturing experts later in November, who will whittle the shortlist down to six national entries and

select two overall finalists.

The lucky pair will then have the chance to help make prototypes of their designs at the UK’s first Fab Lab, a digital fabrication laboratory based in Manchester.